Shelf satisfying— London

Preface

Faced with the recession and competition from retail giants and online sellers, small bookshops have been disappearing fast from our high streets. But there’s one London gem that’s a textbook example of how to buck the trend.

Independent bookshops in the US and Europe were already having a tough time before the credit crunch began, with competition from the high street giants, supermarkets and Amazon. Since the recession set in, bookshops of all sorts have lost sales (Borders dropped 8.8 per cent in 2008). Yet one place believes it will emerge stronger than its larger competitors.

Daunt Books began in London’s Marylebone High Street in 1990, just before the last recession in Britain. Twenty years and four more branches later, its principles haven’t changed. “We have…

26

September 2009

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Faced with the recession and competition from retail giants and online sellers, small bookshops have been disappearing fast from our high streets. But there’s one London gem that’s a textbook example of how to buck the…